Tom, our guide for the day had been driving these boats for the last 30 years and had a character that was well suited to the job, a soft comforting voice with a storytellers drawl. Throughout the day he dropped in stories of past trips, experiences and interesting facts about the area. We were encouraged to ask questions, where possible he would answer. A couple of questions however had stumped him in the past, one lady had asked why they bothered to ship all the rocks and sand in to line the river instead of just leaving it as concrete.....obviously not a country girl. Another guy wanted to know how they pumped all the water up to the fuel the waterfalls.......so I guess not all the stories of American intellect are unfounded.

The hope was to a variety of the local wildlife and to enjoy the experience of a jet boat. Neither disappointed, wildlife was abundant and travelling in a boat that can turn on a sixpence and travel in 18 inches of water in definitely worth a go.

We stopped for a mid morning drink at one of the few places that lined the river, the view was stunning and although it was considerably cooler than it looks the setting was well worth stopping for.

A little while later and we were on our way again, at this point we were introduced to our first spin of the day, Tom charismatically described the reasoning behind spins, "There;s really only two reasons to do a spin, one cos the boat can do it, and the other, well cos it's kinda fun", turns out that both are true. The basic premise is to get the boat going at around 20 mph then turn 360 degrees without slowing down first, the front dips, the back spins out and everyone smiles and laughs :-)

We carried on upstream through rapids, past fisherman, rafters and canoeists. The scenery continued to impress and we got glimpses of the wildlife that was abundant in the area. We caught a couple of glimpses of bears but the moment they saw us they bolted for the undergrowth so it was mostly just there backsides.

Birds lined the riverbank, eagles and buzzards circled above, herons along the sides and various ducks and smaller birds floated on by. All in all the trip was well worth it especially given that we only made it onto the river because the van had taken a turn for the worse.